In 1989, five teenagers from Harlem were accused of raping and beating a woman in New York’s Central Park, and though they confessed, they withdrew their confessions almost immediately and said they had been coerced by overzealous police officers. Unfortunately, the city—particularly the son of a racist real estate mogul who was just establishing his own penchant for idiocy—demanded “justice,” and the five teenagers were quickly convicted. While all five were finally exonerated in...